Molecular sensing via an immobilized organometalcarbonyl probe group

Abstract

Tricarbonyl(cyclohexadiene)iron(0) reporting groups have been derivatized by attachment of an aminopropylsilyl link and attached covalently to silica, The infrared (IR) properties of the organometalcarbonyl moiety have been investigated by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and have been shown to retain their capacity to function as a key element of a molecular sensor assembly. The v(CO) vibrational frequencies of the immobilized complexes shift with changes in the solvent environment when exposed to binary and ternary solvent systems, Principal components regression (PCR) was used to correlate the v(CO) shifts of the probe group quantitatively with solvent composition with a root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.9% for a binary solvent system